John W. Loftus is the author of the book Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity. He is a scholar who has, in his own words, “pretty much the equivalent of a Ph. D". Loftus will be the guest speaker at the Minnesota Atheists Monthly Members Meeting at Southdale Library on Sunday, May 15th at 1pm.

Here's a party you just can't miss—a chance to mix and mingle with the coolest heretics, infidels, and idolaters you'll ever meet while we revel in the sights and sounds of the most unholy entertainment ever assembled on one stage:

It's on May 21st at 10pm at the perfect venue: Hell's Kitchen
in downtown Minneapolis (80 9th Street South, Minneapolis 55402). Admission is a paltry $5, and proceeds will go to a cause near and dear to our heathen hearts: Minnesota Atheists.

If you haven't already marked your calendar in indelible ink, here's the kicker: May 21st is the day evangelicals, led by Harold Camping, believe the Rapture will occur. According to Harold (who blames his last failed prediction in 1994 on "a mathematical error"), his righteous flock will be whisked away to heaven, leaving rest of us to party on. As much as we'd like to wish them a hearty "bon voyage," it'll be almost as much fun to mark the midnight hour as the end of yet another apocalyptic non-event.

Be there, or you'll be confessing your regrets for the rest of the year!

(Letter to the editor, titled "Day of Reason" was published in the Sunday's 05.08.11 editoin of the St. Paul Pioneer Press)

It was disappointing that Gov. Dayton chose to celebrate the National Day of Prayer with church pastors on the Capitol's steps instead of celebrating reason with the Minnesota Atheists in the Capitol rotunda on May 5. While the group outside prayed for lawmakers to support the discriminatory ban on same-sex marriage, we spoke of the need to keep ethnocentric myth-based beliefs out of public policy decisions.

“The separation of church and state is nowhere in the constitution.” That’s a favorite mantra of conservative Christians that they are always eager to repeat. On any day, if you undertake a google search for news of church/state separation, you are certain to find an editorial, commentary or letter to the editor stating this as if this were some little-known, everywhere misunderstood fact. Of course, neither is democracy mentioned in the constitution, nor consent of the governed, nor practically any other political value cherished by our nation’s founders. But the separation of church and state is spelled out in the first two clauses of the First Amendment. The Establishment Clause is the very first, stating that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. It is followed by the Free Exercise Clause, quote: “nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”